Barnstable Assistant Town Manager Tom Lynch had the opportunity to test drive the manager’s seat last week, watching the council move through its agenda and appoint him unanimously.

Town Manager John Klimm had announced to the council on Sept. 8 that a prior longstanding commitment would prevent him from attending the Sept. 22 meeting.

At the end of the meeting, Lynch thanked the council for its confidence.

“At this point in time, I’m very interested in serving in an interim role and probably won’t be looking beyond that,” Lynch told the council.

In a phone interview Sept. 29, Lynch said that “You never want to close he door on any opportunity … but it’s something I’d have to really think about.”

In the meantime, he’s interested in making town staff comfortable with the transition and to ensure the town keeps moving forward.

He said he would be meeting with senior managers after Sept. 30 to hone a short-term agenda that could be accomplished over the next few months.

What could be on that agenda? Lynch said that the budget will be first and foremost during that span, but he also believes there are matters relating to solid waste, some of which were discussed earlier in the meeting, that he believes “can be accomplished within a reasonable period of time.”

Precinct 1 councilor Ann Canedy said that she always thought the budget process had the public input piece backward, coming after it was prepared and developed. She said that it would be nice to advance that earlier.

Lynch said that after he meets with the senior management team, he has something that he’d like to bring back to the council “that would fit in very nicely with the suggestion you just made.”

Lynch was appointed to the position in December 2007 as the third assistant town manager to serve under Klimm. Like Klimm, he is a former state representative, serving from 1977 to 1983. At the time of his appointment, he’d served 16 years as executive director of the Barnstable Housing Authority.

He continues to serve as Barnstable’s elected delegate to the county Assembly, where he carries a 20.97 percent weighted vote on all matters. Speaking this week, he said that the current appointment is really for a matter of 15 weeks. Should he be appointed for a longer period if the council is not ready to move forward with a permanent appointment, he acknowledged that it would become more difficult.

Lynch said this week that he plans to check with the state Ethics Commission, as he did when he accepted the assistant manager appointment.

As for the manner in which the council took up appointment of the temporary manager, it resulted in cries of “coup d’etat” and two councilors leaving the meeting for the rest of the night.

Almost immediately after the issue was on the floor, Precinct 2 Councilor Tom Rugo nominated Lynch to serve through Dec. 15, which was seconded. That prompted Precinct 5 Councilor Jim Crocker to question President Fred Chirigotis on the process. Crocker said that the two had discussed the matter the via telephone the evening before, and Crocker had a different impression of how it would proceed.

Chirigotis said that there was a motion on the floor and the council would address it.

Crocker then made an unsuccessful attempt to move the council into executive session, which wasn’t allowed, as another motion was already before the council. Council Vice President Jan Barton then moved the question, which was seconded, ending debate.

“Are we here for the residents, or are we here for a coup d’etat?” Precinct 13 Councilor Greg Milne asked.

Chirigotis allowed Milne to pose two questions regarding Lynch’s appointment– would he a be a candidate for the permanent position and would he retain his seat on the Assembly – which were then ruled to be off point.

“Who do I work for? Do you work for a more powerful group of citizens than me?” Milne asked Chirigotis.

The question was moved on an 8 to 3 vote and Lynch was appointed unanimously by the remaining 11 councilors. Crocker and Precinct 3 Councilor Jim Munafo left the meeting prior to those votes, not to return.